Venice is cool, I guess. But the one thing I wanted to see I couldn't find, and that is the library in "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade". There are so many churches here that I don't know which one it was. Or if I have even seen it yet. What a waste of a trip.
.
JK!
.
I met Carrie at her hotel early yesterday and after checking out of my hostel, we proceeded to Gare Nice Ville. Our stop was Peillon, a small town about 20 minutes from Nice. Despite what people say, and I think this stereotype spawned from Parisians--not the French in whole, but the French are very helpful people. Carrie and I were nearly lost before Jaques-like frenchman and his three-legged dog showed us the way.
.
We arrived at the Peillon village at about 8 am. For being an amazing medieval-looking city on top of the hill (about 700 meters above sea level?), we were surprised to find that it was all residential for the most part. In fact, people were just waking up. The houses were packed close together with hardly any room to move between them, but we made our way to the church at the peak of town.
.
Before making our way over the nearby mountain to our next village, we found a restaurant near Peillon were we had breakfast. It was here that Carrie took upon herself the "Roxanne" alter-ego (inspired by Bernard La Vique), and order us breakfast. It was just as one would imagine from the perfect breakfast, and the fact that we had it at such a locale, made it even better.
.
I was only disappointed that my "Anton aus Tirol" alter-persona didn't get it's chance to shine, as there were no German-speaking opportunities.
.
After an hour climb to the top of the mountain, or hill, we found ourselves looking down on Peille. Just as beautiful as Peillon, Peille is a little larger, with some impressive churches in town. The trail turned into a road that was carved into the cliff face, which led us to Peille.
.
It took us forever to get back to the train at the base of Peille, but once arriving, and having a very one-sided conversation with the upstairs neighbor of the train station, we ended in Nice with our legs very tired.
.
The next stop was the Matisse museum, but according to the taxi driver, it was closed. Plan B was the Chagall museum, but according to the museum front desk, my backpack was too big to be allowed inside. So I split from my sister and her friends, and caught the next train leaving for Milan.
.
I made some friends on the train. An italian family (one mother, three young kids) traveling home to Milan shared my cabin. I knew we had really hit things off when mom offered me some candy, which she latter told me that was a reward for having dealt with her rowdy kids. When leaving, she pointed to the book I trying to read, "the Agony and the Ecstasy", and she said, "the train ride was the agony, now that we are gone it is the Ecstasy". But she must have overlooked the fact that I was going to Milan, and that isn't quite enough reason to be ecstatic.
.
Because I left Nice late, and didn't get to bed in Milan until 12:30 a.m. The hostel manager had a strange look on his face as I both checked-in and checked-out during his shift--I had to catch a train early, so I only slept for 4.5 hours.
.
It's May-day in Italy, and if you think the Italian labor force had enough breaks, they shut down the Milan transportation system. I still found my way to Venice, and have been here for about 6 hours. Venice is beautiful, and a lot more than I expected; but, it is still very crowded and touristy. The museums are way overpriced, and anything free has a two-hour waiting line, and this was supposed to be the off-season.
.
If I have bad grammar, I do sincerely apologize. I also feel that most of this is uninteresting. But you'll just have to take it as it is!
.
Tonight is Ljubljana, where I'll meet Jeff. It is his call from then what we'll do, but we'll be in Dalmatia later in the week.
No comments:
Post a Comment